Hi William, 

From what I can see, all the words that follow 'de' in the examples given are nouns, e.g. rayas=stripes, plástico=plastic, fresa=strawberry, historia=story, etc. 

In Spanish, by using the preposition 'de' before the second noun, this same noun then acts like an adjective, albeit as a stand-alone word it is obviously a noun. 

In English it's often the same, although we don't use any preposition, e.g. 'a summer dress'. The noun summer is acting as an adjective to describe the dress but both words are nouns. In Spanish it would be 'un vestido de verano.

Hope this helps a little. 😊

Hello there William ... Hello there Clara ...

I remember reading somewhere that, in Arabic, the dividing line between nouns and adjectives is not as clear-cut as it is in English. And I suspect that the same might be said of Spanish - i.e., perhaps this is a feature inherited from several centuries of contact with Arabic?